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Doctors and health care workers with the UNLV School of Medicine suit up in personal protective equipment before taking patients at a drive thru coronavirus testing site Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Las Vegas. UNLV Medicine, the clinical arm of the UNLV School of Medicine, started conducting COVID-19 testing by appointment for people who meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. John Locher/AP Photo

What Happens To Used Personal Protective Equipment?

As COVID-19 continues to spread in Wisconsin, and personal protective equipment (PPE) becomes more and more important for frontline workers, questions have surfaced about what happens to that equipment when it’s discarded.

PPE materials such as gowns, gloves and masks that are considered soiled by hospital policy would be thrown into a biohazard trash bag, Fitzpatrick said.

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His company collects these bags, making sure they are sealed correctly. The bags then go into a sealed processing system at a MERI facility, where the material is injected with steam, shredded, and heated to 200 degrees in microwaves until it is disinfected.

"It takes about an hour from the beginning to the end, and during that entire process it's a sealed system," Fitzpatrick said. "And when it comes out the end, it looks like confetti."

The material is then sent to a landfill.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Medical waste (trash) coming from healthcare facilities treating COVID-2019 patients is no different than waste coming from facilities without COVID-19 patients."

At the state level, solid and hazardous waste including infectious waste is regulated by the state Department of Natural Resources, which is following CDC guidelines for health care waste management.

"It's required to be manifested all the way through from generation to disposal," said Casey Lamensky, solid waste coordinator at the DNR. "So it's tracked and properly regulated, and we are preparing for different situations in these facilities."

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